Henry Ford came in at third,
J D Rockefeller was #1
Andrew Carnegie #2
and Bill Gates at 4
That's OK. I'd settle for third.
I'm headed for third from the bottom!
What is the source of this list? Just wondering?
Jon, it's on the internet. It must be true.
It was a broadcast segment on TV 'Finance News' just some trivia to fill in time I suppose.
Steve: I recently read on the internet a quote attributed to Abraham Lincoln. "You can't trust everything you read on the internet" LOL
Here's another take on that, by "Celebrity Net Worth": http://www.celebritynetworth.com/articles/entertainment-articles/25-richest-peop le-lived-inflation-adjusted/#!/
They tried to rank the 25 richest persons ever adjusted to today's dollars. Ol' Henry came in ninth with $199 billions.
Richest ever? A rather unknown king of Mali during the 14:th century, Mansa Musa I, with gold and estate valued at $400 billions today. He controlled half the world's supply of gold and salt in those days.
When Henry was worth a billion dollars, $5 a day was a great wage. Some worked for a dollar a day. $5000 would build a big estate home and a new Ford cost $300. Over 90 percent of Henry's worth went to the Ford Foundation.
Howard, that's funny!
Check out http://marketspost.com/ten-richest-people-time/. I thought Cornelius Vanderbilt and John Jacob Astor were probably richer than Ford. Jim Patrick
I think it depends most on who is doing the calculating!
And yet.... I'll bet that on their deathbed, not a single one thought about wealth...... with the possible exception of Carnegie, who wanted to (and did, I guess) give all his wealth away.....
The St. Louis Public Library has just completed a $70 million dollar restoration in honor of its 100th birthday. It was one of the libraries that Andrew Carnegie provided the money for. Some of Carnegie's living relatives from Scotland will be flown over for the gala event. The Scottish community (The Scottish St Andrew Society of Greater St. Louis and the St. Louis Scottish Games Inc.) is having a party the night before the gala at the Schlafly Tap Room to meet the Carnegie family members who are coming over.
Trivia: the Scottish members of the community have taught the Americans that the proper pronunciation of the name is not CAR-neg-ie, as it is heard here, but rather Car-NEGG-ie.
Jim,
When J. P.Morgan Sr. Died in 1913 he was reportedly worth $65 million. When John D. Rockefeller heard of this he remarked: "and he didn't even die a rich man."
Larry
Cornelius Vanderbilt was ranked in a 2007 study as the second wealthiest person in American History if his total wealth was applied to the GDP in 1877 when he died with the same formulas today.
If you adjust for inflation, J D Rockefeller was the richest person in world history.